Tsutomu Yamaguchi, The Man Who Survived The Horror Of Two Atomic Bombs In Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Back in August 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was preparing to leave Hiroshima, Japan, when the atomic bombing interrupted his plans. The 29-year-old naval engineer was in the city on work orders from his employer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. After his three-month-long work trip in the prefecture, it was Yamaguchi’s last day in the city.?

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, The Man Who Endured The Blow Of Two Atomic Bombs

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When the bomb hit Hiroshima, Yamaguchi was preparing to finally go back to his family, his wife Hisako and their infant son Katsutoshi. Around 8:15 that morning, Yamaguchi spotted an American aircraft drop something on the city as he walked a final time in Mitsubishi’s shipyard.

As the object came down to the city, it erupted what Yamaguchi described looked like “the lightning of a huge magnesium flare.” To save himself, he had just enough time to dive into a ditch before an ear-splitting roar burst through the area. The shockwave took Yamaguchi and hurled him around in a tornado before dumping him in a potato patch.?

Later, he told The Times, “I think I fainted for a while. When I opened my eyes, everything was dark, and I couldn’t see much. It was like the start of a film at the cinema before the picture has begun when the blank frames are just flashing up without any sound.” Yamaguchi’s face and arms had suffered severe burns and both his ears had been raptured.?

Yamaguchi Was Not The Lone Survivor Of The Bombing

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When he gained his senses, Yamaguchi went back to the shipyard and found two of his co-workers who were still alive, Akira Iwanaga and Kuniyoshi Sato. After spending a night at an air raid shelter, the three men made their way to the train station. They encountered hellish scenes on their ride to the station but somehow made it as Yamaguchi then hopped on a train to his hometown in Nagasaki.

The next day after reaching home covered in bandages and wounds, Yamaguchi somehow made it to Mitsubishi’s Nagasaki office to report for work. He found himself with the company’s director who demanded a full report on the incidents that took place in Hiroshima.

While Yamaguchi was in the midst of telling what he saw, though the director barely believed him, the landscape outside the office suddenly lit up in iridescent light. Yamaguchi fell flat on the floor as the shockwaves destroyed the office windows. For the second time in three days, the man had been hit with fatal cancer-causing radiation.?

His Wife And Son, Both Miraculously Survived The Bombing

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The wounded man made his way home to check on his wife and son as he feared the worst of scenarios. However, when he reached home, Yamaguchi found out that his wife and son were alive though both had sustained superficial injuries. She and the baby took shelter in a tunnel as they had been looking for Yamaguchi’s burn ointment.?

In the following days, the radiation caught up to Yamaguchi as he suffered from severe hair loss and incessant vomiting. Yet, somehow unlike so many other victims, Yamaguchi made it through. He and his wife even had two more children. He later journeyed to New York in 2006 to speak about nuclear disarmament before the United Nations. He said while at the UN, “Having experienced atomic bombings twice and survived, it is my destiny to talk about it.”